Been a while...

So I haven't posted anything in a bit, but it's not been for lack of anything to do.  Work out the wazoo.  Commission for a family set of archery gear that's been going on.  Again, I've been lax with documenting progress, but here's a sneak peek anyway.  More to follow soon as possible.  Cheers.

Things I'm Learning

It's been an interesting few days.  My youngest has been sick, complaining of headaches.  This seems odd to me in a three year old, and if it continues we'll take her to a doc.  With her ill, sleep has been hard to come by, so little has been getting done.  Got a little research done on things like small business licences, taxes and such.  Discovered that I don't need to register for GST unless my gross income on the business exceeds 30 grand.  That seems unlikely.  Also was struck by the idea that if I set up my site as an artist site, designed to do commissions the business aspects may be different.  Something I need to look into further.  Since I don't intend to sell anything other than handmade, would I count as a business, or an artist?  Or are they one and the same from a government viewpoint?

Another thing I've really had driven home in the last few days is the importance of organisation.  I've always been "artsy," which in this case is a euphemism for being shit at organisation.  Whether it's contacts, or commission notes or leather dye it needs to be close at hand so I can locate what is needed when I need it.  To that end, I spent the better part of the day going through my office clearing workspace, cleaning tool totes and just generally reducing crap volume.  Still cannot find the leather dye though.  A whole box of it.  Just gone.  Dammit.

Another thing that I have come to think on is support.  You have to have the right people in your life who will prop you up when you need it.  I am fortunate to have an amazing wife and three fantastic kids who may think I'm slightly bent, but they love and support my strangeness anyway.  I have an amazing network of friends and colleagues, some possibly even more bent than I am, who are not only a great cheer squad, but aren't afraid to tell me, "Hey, buddy.  That's kinda stupid."  Sure, they're laughing when they say it, and maybe they waited until after I screwed up to say something, but their hearts are in the right place. Right?

I also got an email from Kari Chapin today, the author I plugged in my first post.  That was a boost.  It sounds corny, but it's rare I think to find people in the world who are inspiring and to get a thumbs-up from someone who HAS done what I am trying to do is very encouraging.

For now, I think I need to focus on figuring out exactly how the face of my business, be it artist or store, is going to impact the actual business side of things.  It changes everything from the most basic of paperwork to the look of the website when it's completed.  Well, that and finishing all the commissions I've already got...

Progress

So, somehow the Fates have smiled upon me and I've a friend who needs to build websites to pad her portfolioand has offered to do Redcloak for me.  For free.  No, I'm not posting her name and contact info. She's mine and you can't have her!! Muahahahaha!   Ahem, anyway.  The "to do" list for the birth of the site is significant, and being that it's being done for free, I'm in no great rush.  Much of it is already done, or at least in the deep thought and consideration stage.  Domain name chosen; it's available.  Logo is in late stages of design, just need a little redesign and altteration.  I need to come up with some stock categories and decide on basic layout and design.  The payment method thing is kinda freaking me out some too.  The are so many online options, and I really don't know that much about how they work.  More research needed.  Good thing that I'm not planning to go live with the store site until fall...  That's it  for now I suppose.  Projects to plan....

What the hell have I gotten myself into? It's a gamble...

Alright.  After much prompting, cajoling and general harassment from others, (and from my inside voice) I've decided to finally make a go of it.  It started out slowly.  Making a few things here and there for friends and family.  Then others started saying I should sell stuff.  So I let it be known I was willing to sell things.  The commissions started.  Finally one evening as my wife and I were lamenting the lack of full time teaching contracts in my area (I am a substitute teacher) she said, "If you wanted to start thinking about your crafting crap as a business, it might make me feel better about the waste of time."

I took that as complete consent and drove forward into...what?  I had no idea what I was doing, or where to start, or even anything remotely resembling start-up money.  It really looked like my fledgling project would fail before it started.

Let me go back an unspecified amount of time.  One evening, over beverages of an adult nature, my good friend Rob suggested that, being a single man with a decent income, he could be sort of a silent partner and support my crafting habit.  Being that we're both members of the Society for Creative Anachronism we decided it would be a patronage arrangement.  He provides raw materials, and in return I make him stuff.  This would be, it turns out, how I get my raw materials.

So, I have the drive and a source for start up material.  Now what?  I really didn't know.

I stalled.  Hard.  For about two months I did nothing in pursuit of my plan.  Then as I'm strolling through the local Michael's store trying to keep my rug-monkeys from clearing the shelves I see this book.  This wonderful little square-ish book.  It was called "The Handmade Marketplace: how to sell your crafts locally, globally and online" by Kari Chapin.  Holy Crap.  It's like this lovely lady had lived inside my head.  The book is a fantastic resource and a wellspring of inspiration for the aspiring craftrepreneur.  The only part of the book I didn't find immensely useful was the bit in the third chapter about tax info.  Being that I'm Canadian, very little of it was applicable.  

But it gave me a place to start!  

No longer was I stumbling forward, sideways and back trying to figure out what I was doing.  I now had a gameplan.  A roadmap.  One of the important steps Ms. Chapin laid out was webpresence.  I had none.  I honestly would be content to live in a smokey hut in the woods all the time, so mastering the technological skills required to build myself a home on the Web has been quite intimidating. 

I make it sound as if I have mastered those skills. No, sadly I am far from it.  But that's part of the point of this blog.  I want to document my road to success, or at least my rough track to being able to support an expensive hobby.  Hopefully it will be useful, and inspiring and at least a little entertaining.  I plan to post works in progress, tutorials, and tell my story to anyone interested in hearing.